Preparations

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 24 Oct 2013 02:02

Mon, Tues & Wednesday – 21st, 22nd & 23rd Oct

 

The next two weeks will be spent here in Hampton preparing for the passage south to the Caribbean (some 1500 miles) but the time will be split between preparing both ourselves and Serafina for this 10 day sail and a fair degree of socialising.

 

Because the insurance companies by and large take a dim view of us sailing types heading off into hurricanes or tropical storms, they refuse to cover us for certain areas during the recognised hurricane seasons. So there are a fair number of yachts gathering here at the south end of the Chesapeake in readiness for the beginning of November which is the first date that we are allowed to set out offshore, heading south from here.

 

In recognition of this there are a few rallies that provide support and cover for boats making this run and the most relaxed and enjoyable of these is the relatively new Salty Dawg Rally.  This was set up only a few years ago by our very good friends Bill & Linda who have been such generous hosts to us over the July 4th celebrations for the last two years.  The rally is totally laid back and is completely free to participating yachts but has attracted extraordinary amounts of sponsorship at almost every level. So from an initial event consisting of 30 boats it has grown to accommodate over 100 boats this year. But this is not your usual rally and the whole thing is hugely relaxed and is much more about cruising safely in company than anything else. The start date is only nominally 4th Nov since you can actually leave whenever you want or consider the weather to be most favourable (there is a free service for the duration of the rally from the region’s foremost weather forecaster and router, Chris Parker) and the destinations can be just about anywhere you please in the Caribbean.

 

Most, but not all of the SDR boats are congregating here in Hampton and so we are meeting up with lots of friends made over the years. On Tuesday David and Brenda from Bandit (NZ) came over from the anchorage for drinks. We last saw them in Marmaris, Turkey just as we were setting off around the Middle East back in 2010 (in the days when you could). Also Andrew from Eye Candy (Aus) appeared in a dinghy and we should be seeing a bit more of them over the next few weeks. Il Sogno is here (although Karene is away visiting her mother) and Ruffian, Balvenie and Lady are all due quite soon.

 

On Monday the sun was shining so we took advantage to spend the best part of the day putting the Spotless Stainless to good use although everything looks so good now, it is a little hard to see real improvements. But we have plentiful supplies of fresh water here and so we are taking full advantage of this.

 

On Tuesday Sarah headed off to find a Trader Joe’s Grocery store (Newport News) using the hire car that we have hung onto for a few more days and then on Wednesday she headed off to Newport News again to get her hair cut. Then in the afternoon we visited the local yacht club to say hello and see what was going on and were invited to come along on Friday evening to a happy hour (or two) and meet a few of the members.  We then went off in the car in search a usable Wi Fi signal and having tracked down the library and made ourselves comfortable, it turned out that we could surf the web but not get any of our emails. So we headed off to that reliable backstop in these situations – McDonalds. Yes they can be relied upon to provide fast clean and free Wi Fi although having to drink a cup of their coffee is the price you have to factor in.